Method of designing gear-honing-wheel geometries (Validation based on fundamental theory and honing experiments)

Abstract

The present paper describes a method for determining geometries of gear-honing wheels used in the final process for manufacturing automotive transmission gears. Inappropriate geometries of gear-honing wheels could cause large undulations on finished gear-tooth flanks, and the finished gear would be out of the required accuracy. In such cases, the geometries of gear-honing wheels are required to be modified iteratively until the finished gears have sufficient accuracy. The change in meshing stiffness of a gear-honing wheel and a finished gear significantly affects the rotational synchronization. The poor rotation synchronization could cause the large undulation on a finished gear-tooth flank, to be different from the target micro geometries. This paper presented a geometrical approach that was proposed for a determination method of gear-honing-wheel geometries. The method allows the meshing stiffness to be balanced. Gear-honing wheels designed with the proposed method induced the desired micro geometries of finished gear-tooth flanks in gear-honing experiments. Therefore, the proposed method with the geometrical approach could be useful for the determination of gear-honing-wheel geometries.

Method of designing gear-honing-wheel geometries (Considering of relative sliding velocities)

“…Among these parameters, the honing wheel and the target gear share the same normal pressure angle and normal module. In addition, the authors have previously shown that tooth-flank undulations can be improved by achieving a suitable meshing stiffness balance between the honing wheel and the target gear as a result of applying a profile shift coefficient that obtains zero meshing phase difference between the right and left tooth flanks (Matsuo et al, 2020). However, there have been cases where, depending on the target gear geometries involved, early changes have occurred in micro geometries, thereby drastically shortening the honing wheel tool life in mass production.…”

“…We proposed a method of analysis the tooth flank in internal gear honing in which machining proceeds under linecontact meshing in our previous study (Matsuo et al, 2020). This analysis method is described here for the purpose of calculating the relative sliding velocities of the target gear tooth flank.…”

“…The shaft angle is determined by the helix angles of the honing wheel and the target gear and the profile shift coefficient (Matsuo et al, 2020). The honing process applies relative motion to the target gear and the honing wheel, which induces relative sliding velocities in the tooth-profile direction and in the tooth-trace direction, thereby machining the target gear tooth flanks.…”

“…Figure 17 is a flowchart for designing honing wheel geometries that obtain stable finished gear accuracy using the method proposed above for designing the parameters of the honing wheel design and the design method proposed in our previous papers (Matsuo et al, 2019), (Matsuo et al, 2020). The design system shown in this flowchart automatically outputs all the geometries of the honing wheel as the output parameters as a result of applying the specified input parameters.…”

“…In an effort to solve this issue, the influence of the meshing-stiffness balance on the micro geometries of the tooth flanks of gears finished in the gear honing process was investigated in our previous study (Matsuo et al, 2020). The results revealed that the key to determining the honing wheel geometries is to maintain the meshing-stiffness balance between the honing wheel and the target gear.…”